Short Abstract

Beyond the popular ‘Gen Z’ label, this panel examines the regionally and locally specific histories and politics that underpin recent urban protests in East Africa. It also examines state responses, or the ‘anti-protest state’, and their relation to broader authoritarian repression in the region.

Long Abstract

Urban protests have drawn renewed attention across East Africa in recent years. From ‘maandamano’ in Kenya to anti-corruption and election related protest in Uganda and Tanzania, popular mobilizations are challenging incumbent regimes. This popular action is routinely framed—including by some protesters—as part of global ‘Gen Z’ protests, led by digitally networked but economically excluded youth. While this comparison has value, it risks obscuring the regionally and locally specific histories, social configurations, and political relations that underpin East Africa’s protests. This panel examines these more context-specific protest dynamics and, crucially, how they interact with state responses, or what Branch and Mampilly (2015) call the ‘anti-protest state’. We ask, what combination of grievances, social actors, and organizational forms helped propel recent protests? How have states responded? And how do new strategies of control relate to broader authoritarian repression across East Africa?

Papers may address a range of actors and themes. Alongside formal opposition groups and prominent or online activists, we encourage attention to uneven urban geographies of protests, to the contribution of working-class neighbourhoods and of ‘informal’ street workers, to conditions of inter-class coordination, to gender dynamics, and in turn, to how different groups are targeted—or not—by state responses. We also welcome analysis of local, regional, or transnational authoritarian coordination, including in evolving surveillance and policing strategies. Finally, papers may reflect on the ethics of researching politically sensitive movements, including whether and how scholarship can examine—or support—protest politics without exposing participants or emerging forms of resistance.

Propose paper